What The Heck Is ‘Longmire’ On Netflix All About?

Kicking off its fourth season today is Longmire, Netflix’s newly acquired original series that you probably haven’t heard of until now. That’s because the small-town sheriff drama, based on the popular Walt Longmire Mysteries crime novels, aired for three seasons on A&E before inexplicably getting the ax last summer. Similarly to how they resurrected AMC crime drama The Killing for its fourth and final season, Netflix has adopted Longmire as one of their own, giving the series a second chance to finally grasp the niche audience it had difficulty finding on cable.

While mourning the loss of his wife, Sheriff Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) is thrown back into the thick of detective work after stumbling upon a dead body in the snowy woods of northern Wyoming. Partnered with no-nonsense Vic Moretti (Katee Sackoff), the two are tasked with finding the man’s killer, which leads them down a convoluted path of corruption and cover ups involving the area’s Native American reservations and local law enforcement. The more Walt uncovers about the case, the more his own family secrets rise to the surface, provoking his daughter, Cady (Cassidy Freeman), to do some of her own investing about her mother’s mysterious death. Through a series of flashbacks and present-day discoveries, the world of Walt Longmire grows increasingly complicated and deadly, despite residing in a picturesque one-horse town.

The series isn’t particularly groundbreaking by any means, but binge-worthy enough for any crime junkies out there who can get on board with a solid mystery. Episodes play out like a novel adaptation with metaphor-heavy dialogue and emphasis on location, gently warning through storybook frames that even the most beautiful places in the world have ugly secrets. If you enjoy understated crime dramas like Happy Valley and were pleasantly surprised by the small-town suspense of Wayward Pines earlier this summer, chances are that Longmire is worth adding to your List. Ten new episodes are available to stream now on Netflix in addition to Seasons One through Three.

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